A/HRC/36/64 9. Power struggles between and within the armed groups, ethnic tensions, attempts to control areas rich in resources and seasonal migration movements (by livestock herders) have led to an escalation in violence not seen since 2014. 10. In the provinces of Ouaka and Haute-Kotto, territorial clashes between the coalition of the Front populaire pour la renaissance de la Centrafrique (FPRC) and the Union pour la paix en Centrafrique (UPC) have affected many civilians, who are increasingly targeted on the basis of their ethnicity. Between September and November 2016, a series of battles between FPRC and UPC in Bria and between ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka fighters in Kaga Bandoro led to the displacement of nearly 53,000 persons. 11. In December 2016, FPRC and its allies, including anti-Balaka elements, launched an offensive to dislodge UPC from its stronghold in Bambari. During their advance towards Bambari, the armed coalition attacked numerous villages to the east and north of the city and committed numerous human rights abuses against the population, especially the Fulani. 12. Faced with an imminent attack on Bambari, MINUSCA took military action on 26 February 2017 to halt the advance of the FPRC coalition, which resulted in the death of the FPRC chief of staff and injuries to seven others among its members. MINUSCA obtained the withdrawal of the armed groups from the city, including that of Ali Darassa, the head of UPC, who had set up his headquarters there. The local anti-Balaka chief, Gaétan Boadé, also left Bambari, which MINUSCA designated a “city free from armed groups”. 13. However, Ali Darassa’s departure from Bambari for the south has merely shifted the locus of the conflict towards the prefectures of Basse-Kotto, Mbomou and Haut-Mbomou. Between 20 and 22 March, the FPRC coalition and anti-Balaka elements reportedly killed more than 23 civilians in Bakouma, in Mbomou prefecture. On 15 April, UPC reportedly attacked the locality of Zémio, in Haut-Mbomou prefecture, as well as the MINUSCA base during the night of 15 April. The attack left two persons dead on the UPC side and several wounded. 14. On 10 May, in an ambush on the road between Rafaï and Bangassou, anti-Balaka elements allegedly kidnapped and killed Cambodian and Moroccan peacekeepers in the deadliest attack against a MINUSCA convoy since the Mission’s establishment. Five United Nations peacekeepers were killed and 10 were injured. 15. On 13 and 14 May, alleged anti-Balaka elements operating independently or at the behest of the FPRC coalition carried out an assault with heavy weaponry against the city of Bangassou in the prefecture of Mbomou. The attacks targeted the primarily Muslim neighbourhood of Tokoyo, as well as the MINUSCA base, resulting in the death of one peacekeeper and massive displacements of civilians. There are reports that 3,000 persons sought refuge in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which had been struck by an epidemic of the Ebola virus. 16. In Bria, the security situation deteriorated once again in May 2017, when fighting broke out between two factions of the FPRC/anti-Balaka coalition on 14 May 2017, resulting in dozens of deaths and massive population displacement. On 20 June 2017, the day after the ceasefire declared in Rome, clashes had resumed and had caused the death of several dozen combatants and civilians. 17. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) also continues to commit numerous human rights abuses against the population of the prefectures of Mbomou and Haut-Mbomou as Ugandan and American troops deployed under the African Union Regional Task Force for the elimination of the Lord’s Resistance Army gradually withdraw. The departure of these troops leaves a security vacuum in the east, an area subject to attacks from not only LRA but also other armed groups and criminal organizations. The Independent Expert met people in this area who are very concerned for their safety. 18. In the north-western part of the country, heightened tensions persist between the Fulani and the villagers, related in particular to livestock migration, cattle theft and punitive expeditions. In the prefectures of Nana-Mambéré and Ouham Pendé, the anti-Balaka and the armed group 3R (“Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation”) have committed many abuses, in particular around the localities of Niem, Dankouri, Koui and Bocaranga. 4 GE.17-12914